Delhi government announces scheme for affordable cabs in city

Delhi’s Transport Minister Gopal Rai on Monday said that the Delhi government will introduce a new programme — City Taxi Scheme 2015 — in the national capital to increase the availability of cheap and affordable mode of transport for the public.

Speaking at the secretariat, he told reporters, “For the first two km, the cabs will charge Rs.25, after that it will be Rs.10 per km. This will be a cheaper mode of transport as the tariff will almost be equal to auto-rickshaw fare. The state transport authority in a meeting today (Monday) passed the City Taxi Scheme 2015 for better transport availability in the capital,” he said, adding that a notification in this regard will be issued soon.”

He said that this taxi scheme will be an “amalgamation of the Radio Taxi Scheme 2006 and the Economy Taxi Scheme 2010” adding that even vehicles of capacity 600 cc (small cars like Nano and Rewa) onwards will be covered under the new scheme.

Earlier, only vehicles above 750 cc capacity were allowed to ply as taxis on city roads. He said registrations would be made under individual and group category.

There will be registration fee of Rs 5000 under individual category, while the fee for group category will be Rs 25000.

The minimum fleet required for group category will be 200 cars while the maximum limit has been kept at 2,500.

Rai also said that thethese taxis will have LCD display on top in green (available) and red(occupied) colour.

He said, “Panic button and hooter will be mandatory in the vehicles. Bill will be generated as per rates notified by the government.”

Rai said that the government was also considering coming out with a similar plan for rented motorcycle.